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US felon appears in al-Qaeda video

AM - Thursday, 31 May , 2007 08:23:00

Reporter: Leigh Sales

TONY EASTLEY: One of the United States' most wanted men has appeared in an al-Qaeda video posted on the internet, warning Americans that if they don't change their foreign policy their nation will experience violence that will make them forget all about September 11.

Adam Gadahn is a 28-year old Californian, who is now Osama bin Laden's English language spokesman.

Gadahn is the first American to be charged with treason since the Second World War era.

National Security Correspondent Leigh Sales reports.

LEIGH SALES: Adam Gadahn's family was Jewish and Christian and he grew up in Oregon and California. Now he's believed to be hiding somewhere on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, a devoted jihadist.

ADAM GADAHN: This is not a call for negotiations. We don't negotiate with baby killers and war criminals like you, and your failure to heed our demands means that you and your people will experience things which will make you forget all about the horrors of September 11th, Afghanistan and Iraq and Virginia Tech.

LEIGH SALES: This is Gadahn's sixth appearance in an al-Qaeda propaganda video. It surfaced on various intelligence and counter-terrorism blogs yesterday.

He's known amongst his comrades as Azzam al-Amriki - Azzam the American. He has pasty white skin and a wispy brown beard and wears a white robe and turban. He jabs his finger at the camera during his eight-minute rant at the United States President.

ADAM GADAHN: It's your choice, Bush. Cutting your losses and saving some face by getting out now with what you've still got, or continuing to count your dead and pursue a bloody fight to the very end, your end.

LEIGH SALES: The FBI is offering $1-million for information leading to Gadahn's arrest.

Raffi Khatchadourian wrote a profile on the terrorist for The New Yorker magazine four months ago.

RAFFI KHATCHADOURIAN: He was drawn to Islam on the internet, scrolling through chat rooms, and eventually found it intriguing enough to go visit a local mosque. And very quickly it seems, got involved in a discussion group where various theological subjects and various political subjects were explored.

And his involvement in this discussion group eventually grew into a close association, friendships with these men and he moved into an apartment nearby the mosque with some of them, and I think his process of radicalisation begins there.

LEIGH SALES: Gadahn's story perfectly backs groundbreaking research into what makes people become terrorists, undertaken post-September 11.

A former CIA case officer and forensic psychiatrist, Dr Marc Sageman, used trial transcripts and official documents to profile 500 violent extremists.

He found that the process of embracing terrorism has some things in common with joining a cult.

MARC SAGEMAN: I see terrorism really as very much a group phenomenon. You can't really have terrorists like al-Qaeda without having friends to motivate, sustain your desire and your enthusiasm, especially when you kill yourself, the same way a lot of the al-Qaeda agents have. This is very much you're doing it for your comrades and your God.

LEIGH SALES: The FBI and CIA are devoting more resources to profiling so-called home-grown terrorists like Adam Gadahn.

For security agencies, they're a worst-case scenario - people who blend easily into society and are almost impossible to trace.